Anonymous Strikes Back, Releases 400MB Worth of Stolen Data from NATO

Unless you've been living in a shack in the woods without electricity or Internet, the you should be aware that cyber attacks have been all too common lately. And in the midst of all these attacks which targets various high profile companies such as Sony and AT&T and government agencies such as the CIA and FBI, are three groups that are considered to be the ringleaders. Anonymous, LulzSec and AntiSec.As you all know, we have reported that the FBI conducted a series of arrests in the United States and even the UK of individuals that are believed to be members of Anonymous and LulzSec. Seemingly unfazed by the recent arrests of their members, Anonymous turns the wheel of the vicious cycle yet again. The hacking collective released 400MB worth of stolen data to the Internet which belongs to NATO courtesy of security firm ManTech.

Today is Friday and we will be following the tradition of humiliating our friends from the FBI once again. This time we hit one of their biggest contractors for cyber security: Mantech International Corporation.

Early last month, NATO condemned Anonymous for their actions. The chunk of data from NATO that was released to the wild includes personnel pictures, names, emails and a whole slew of confidential information that the government doesn't want floating around.

The US Government and ManTech have been partners for quite some time now, with the latter providing cyber security for various agencies of the government. Last year, the FBI closed a deal with ManTech that is said to cost about $100 million in order to outsource its cyber security needs. A deal that was actively criticized by the hacking group.

The FBI is outsourcing cybersecurity to the tune of nearly $100 million to a Washington-area managed services company. The deal shows a willingness in the federal government to place IT services more and more in the hands of third parties as agencies don't have enough staff on hand to do the job.

According to the group's accompanying statement, Anonymous is trying to inform the public just how incompetent law enforcement agencies and just how they are allegedly spending the money of the taxpayers.

Indeed, it remains to be seen. It also remains to be seen how much longer the public will accept how completely incompetent law enforcement agencies are spending their citizens' money to fund even more incompetent federal contractors.

In response to these security breaches, ManTech issued a statement acknowledging the attacks and that the company is taking appropriate actions to bolster the security of their services:

we wish to assure our customers, employees, shareholders and business partners that ManTech takes seriously recent reports of a cyber threat, and we responsibly and actively address all sources of information about threats to our information and assets and those of our customers.

And to wrap up the hacking group's released, they addressed the US Government and its citizens:

Dear Government and Law Enforcement, we are repeating this message as we have the suspicion you still do not take us seriously: We are not scared anymore and your threats to arrest us are meaningless. We will continue to demonstrate how you fail at about every aspect of cybersecurity while burning hundreds of millions of dollars that you do not even have.

Dear citizens of the U.S. and the world: We are fighting in the name of all the oppressed and betrayed people. In your name we will continue to fire upon these laughable battleships until they are no more. Hold on tight while the seas are rough but we will prevail!

Now that the hacking groups has once again made their move, one can't expect the government to just sit by idly. And thus we can only predict that this vicious exchange between the hacking groups and the government is far from over.